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Article: Corporate reputation and an insurance motivation for corporate social investment.
- Article from:
- The Journal of Corporate Citizenship
- Article date:
- December 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Greenleaf Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This paper explores an under-researched motive for corporate social investment (CSI): that of insurance. Building on a paper by Godfrey (2005), we argue that social investment insures companies against stakeholder reactions to socially irresponsible acts. We offer predictions regarding the distribution of insurance-motivated social investment across firm characteristics, and highlight the possibility that this form of insurance drives firms towards greater social irresponsibility. Thus, we argue that the overall impact on social welfare of insurance-motivated social investment is ambiguous. An exploratory analysis shows the pattern of charitable giving among large UK ...